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Identity Theft Tax Tips Series Available for Taxpayers Through January

The Internal Revenue Service, state revenue departments and the tax industry released the first in a series of special tax tips designed to provide people critical information to help protect their tax and financial data.

The first of the Security Awareness Tax Tip series provides seven ways people can protect their computers, which takes on added importance as people prepare for the 2016 tax season. A new tip will be available each Monday through the start of the tax season in January.

The“Taxes. Security. Together.”campaign – a joint effort announced last week between the IRS, states and the private-sector tax industry — is designed to raise public awareness that even routine actions on the Internet and their personal devices can affect the safety of their financial and tax data. The education campaign will complement the expanded series of important new protections the IRS, states and tax industry are putting in place for the start of the 2016 filing season to address tax-related identity theft.

The tips, which will be in English and Spanish, will be available on IRS.gov as well as through the states and many in the tax industry. Taxpayers can also subscribe to receive these tips by email – as well as other important tax information for the upcoming tax season. People can also subscribe to receive updates in Spanish.

In coming weeks, these tax tips will touch on key topics such as ongoing phishing schemes and aggressive phone scammers posing as IRS officials. Other tips will discuss the importance of protecting sensitive paper and electronic tax records as well as watching out for friends and family who don’t keep their computer’s software security updated.